Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Doncic hurt his left hamstring during Thursday’s game against Oklahoma City and will not return. The team announced he will have an MRI on Friday to check the injury’s severity, according to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.
Doncic injured himself with about 7:42 left in the third quarter. At that point, the Lakers were down by 38 points and ultimately lost by 43, marking their biggest loss of the season, as noted by insider Jovan Buha.
He initially tweaked his hamstring with about a minute left in the first half, as reported by Khobi Price of The California Post. After the game, head coach JJ Redick stated that Doncic was cleared to play in the second half despite the score, according to Dan Woike of The Athletic.
If Doncic misses a significant amount of time, it would hurt Los Angeles’ chances for the postseason. He was performing exceptionally well leading up to Thursday, helping the Lakers achieve a 15-2 record in March (14-2 when he played), earning the title of Western Conference Player of the Month. He was also nominated for Defensive Player of the Month.
Doncic is one of only 10 players in NBA history to score over 600 points in a single month. He achieved this over 16 games, averaging 37.5 points per game. His month included a 60-point game, a 51-point game, and five other games with at least 40 points.
Named first-team All-NBA five times from 2019-2024, Doncic would be ineligible for major postseason awards if he misses the rest of the regular season. The Lakers have five games left before the regular season concludes on April 12.
Through 63 games, Doncic averaged a league-high 33.8 points, 8.3 assists, 7.9 rebounds, and 1.7 steals, with shooting percentages of .477/.369/.779. He played his 64th game on Thursday but logged only 15 to 20 minutes in two of those games. He needs to play over 20 minutes in one more game to reach the required 65-game minimum.
Law Murray of The Athletic highlighted that Doncic had previously missed four games due to the same left hamstring injury and had been suspended for one game after receiving 16 technical fouls.
Austin Reaves, also dealing with several injuries, was not at full strength during Thursday’s loss. He went to the locker room for evaluation in the first half, returned in the second, but eventually left the game for good in the third quarter, as noted by Woike of The Athletic.